Southern Flavor With a Side of Hot Buttered SoulBy Herschel J. Grangent, Jr.

“And I'll be with him, on that midnight train to
Georgia … WOO WOO! I'd rather live in his world, than live without
him in mine …”

That tune, made famous by Gladys Knight & the Pips, wafts over your
ears as you take another bite of your sweet and spicy barbecue ribs. A sip
of sweetened iced tea washes it down, and for a second, you feel like you’re
in a juke joint somewhere in the back woods of any county in Georgia.

Not quite.

True, it is a juke joint, but this is Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint,
and the location is Hartsfield-Jackson’s Concourse D.

Located near Gate D-10, this restaurant has offered a
taste of the South to visitors from all over the world since it opened February
11.

With a seemingly endless list of inductees into the Georgia Music Hall of
Fame, which includes Gladys Knight, Ray Charles and others, it is evident
that this state has a great deal of musical talent. That is partly how the
restaurant was born.

“We wanted to give passengers a totally different dining experience
from the conventional airport restaurant,” said Terry Harps, president
of Global Concessions, Inc., the parent company of Sweet Georgia’s
Juke Joint. “We are in the very heart of the South, and in some cases
we provide the only glimpse of the South that connecting passengers get
to see. We thought it would be a great idea to give the customer something
that would feel like an old-fashioned Southern juke joint with real Southern
flavor, not only in the food, but in the music as well.”

And the authenticity is definitely there. With a full bar, vintage jazz
and R&B album covers on the walls and a real jukebox filled with extensive
music selections, passengers on a layover –- or anyone who has a little
while to unwind -- can take a step back to simpler times.

Every food item on the menu, from deli sandwiches to burgers to ribs, ranges
between $4 and $10. The bar also features the micro-brew Georgia Brown.

Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint is one of several new concepts in the Airport
Concessions Management program. It followed the February 8 opening of Bistro
del Sol, a healthy choice, deli-style restaurant in the Atrium and preceded
the March renovation and expansion of Adelsea, a duty-free store on Concourse
E.